It is not usual for a politician, even a regional one, to admit in public that he paid money “in violation of the criminal law”. Pavel Sekula, the SPD representative in Zlín, did this at the meeting as the chairman of the housing cooperative. He justified his action by saying that thanks to it the cooperative gained hundreds of millions.
Pavel Sekula heads the Podlesí Housing Cooperative in Zlín. And at the February meeting of one of the houses, he explained why the management of the cooperative proposed to award him a reward of half a million. He stated that during the last ten years he had spent two million crowns from his own as chairman.
“It is somewhat problematic to prove what the funds were used for, because you certainly understand that it was not used for activities that would be in accordance with the criminal law. But we are in the ring without gloves, literally and figuratively. And even in the future, if we want to secure this property, we will probably have to spend some funds again outside of our accounting,” said Sekula.
This is how the representative from Zlín was literally captured by a recording made by the residents of the house – participants in the February meeting. List News had the opportunity to listen to the recording. Moreover, a direct participant confirmed that it is genuine.
According to Sekula, the assets of the cooperative have grown thanks to the money “off the books”, as it sounds on the recording. For example, Sekula mentions that a property dispute with the city was resolved or that a law was passed by the House of Representatives that saved cooperatives tax expenses.
“In order to enforce this law, we had to raise funds. It’s just not possible without it,” Sekula says on the recording.
When one of the members of the team wanted an explanation of his sentences by e-mail, Sekula wrote to him: “Putting such an amendment through Parliament and the Senate in such a short period of one year (since our visit to Mr. Prime Minister Babiš in the Hrzánské Palace) ‘cost something’.” And it wasn’t on the invoice.” Seznam Zprávy became familiar with this e-mail as well.
In an interview for Seznam Zprávy, Pavel Sekula denied that he had bribed anyone. “I did not use my own resources in violation of the criminal code,” Sekula denied, contradicting what he says on the recording.
He did not want to confirm whether what is heard on the recording was actually what he said at the meeting. He admitted that he received the fourteen-minute recording anonymously on Sunday. But he said he didn’t listen to him.
“Because let’s face it, everything can be adjusted these days,” added Pavel Sekula.
At the house meeting in February, he also said that the cooperative will need more money in the future for a lawsuit, the basis of which lies in 2002. He named specific witnesses who should testify in court.
“They certainly won’t volunteer to testify on our behalf without some financial compensation. We will hardly be able to pay them via invoice. And we need to think about whether we should do this or not,” Sekula explained to the cooperative members.
He admits these words today.
However, he claims he was talking about paying the costs the witnesses will incur due to attending court. “They will have to come here from somewhere. They will have to stay here. They will have to go to court. And they will have to testify truthfully on our behalf,” Sekula told the reporter.
In the end, the president of the Podlesí team did not receive the half-million reward.
The management of the cooperative withdrew the proposal after – as Sekula says – there were “signals that it upset people”.
At the same time, he calculated that his actions brought the team 200 to 300 million in the future – according to him, this is proof that he takes good care of the team as a manager.
